Leave seeds in bell peppers to keep it fresh for longer. Rinse onions before chopping to help prevent tears.

 

There are TONS of tips posted throughout this forum. DebPC has some good ones if you do a search for her posts (using advanced search option, limit your search to Quick Tips and Product Tips categories to help narrow your search). In addition, go to the internet and search for fun food tips. I personally like to read foodgeeks.com and fabulousfood.com, but browse through many that are out there.

 

I was interested myself so I went and did the search for Debpc posts. While there I found a great document posted by Michele brandt. It has lots of tips. I printed it off for myself. So now you can just go under search, select advanced and type in Michele's name. Good luck.

 

Here is a short list we compiled at our cluster meeting one night:
Microwave banana 7 seconds before peeling, this puts the acid from the banana into the peel and keeps them from turning brown when sliced.

leave the root of the onion in tact when you cut it, the root end contains the phosphates in the onion, these phosphates are released when you cut the stem off and they are what causes you to cry.

Microwave chees for 5-10 seconds before grating. This releases the oils in the cheese and makes grating cheese much easier. You can also freeze for 10 mins and make the cheese firmer, thus easier to grate.

When choosing lemons look for a lemon with a long node, the longer the node the longer the lemon was ripened on the tree, these lemons yield sweeter juice.

When Juicing a lemon microwave for 10 seconds this weakens the cells inside and makes the lemon easier to juice. You will also get the maximum juice out of the lemon this way.

There are a ton more I can't think of right now but these are the ones I use most and I know work!

 

Some Tips

Here are some that was passed through my cluster loop.....

 

It is actually the sulfur compounds in onions that make you cry. The sulfur reacts with the water in your eye to form sulfuric acid, so your eyes water for protection from the irritation. To really prevent crying, cut the onions under water.

Robin

 

NO more boil overs

If you put a wooden spoon across the top of a pan of boiling water (yes there can be food in the water). It won't boil over.

 

I always get nervous accepting facts w/o verifying so whenever I prepare for a show, I just hop onto the internet and research the cuisine or particular food I am preparing. I get trivia, tips, history...it's a lot of fun and I feel is a reliable source (b/c I check out multiple sites and they usually have the same info).